The date #3

A good friend competes in IDPA, and we basically had this conversation. He was not pleased.

I’m sorry, but even if you’re ducking and dodging, hiding behind wooden panels, IDPA is still basically the same as Winter Biathlon rifle shooting in the olympics, or plinking paper targets on a dare with friends.

“…no, listen to my explanations instead of assuming things.” Actually I don’t know much about either, but I imagine that while the form may seem very similar the rules and the goals are not. Ergo, not the same thing.

IDPA is closer to winter Biathlon, or modern Pentathlon, than to bullseye-type shooting. My gross oversimplification to newbies is “The Zen of Rifle and Pistol is stillness, and the Zen of Shotgun is flexibility”. In IDPA, Biathlon, or Modern Pent (or the Army’s Patton competition), you have all kinds of stuff like exertion, adrenaline, and whatnot messing with your stillness. Likewise, Cowboy action or IPSC.

I always had fun with the St Mary’s Militia target match (matchlocks, wheelies, snaphaunces, crossbows, etc). It’s basically bullseye, so the range officer was all like “Shhhhh…” whenever someone was firing. I told him not to worry about it when I was shooting, because my blackpowder background was Skirmishing. Rapid-fire on breakable targets with muskets and Minié balls, with your teammates yelling “Git ‘em!”, and “Yeee-HAH!”, and giving you crap for missing, does the same thing for your adrenaline as the action shoots.

Relating the known to the unknown, I’d be telling her that she’s experienced stillness, and imagine what adrenaline would do to that.